In certain excavating operations such as in the removal of overburden to uncover an underground pipeline, it often is desirable to remove loose soil on the pipeline or at the bottom of the cut. Usually such loose soil is removed by the use of a rotary brush mounted as an attachment to the handle of the excavating machine. In the prior art, such sweeper attachments generally have consisted of an arm member pivotally connected to the bucket pivot pin for pivotal movement in the same vertical plane as the bucket, a rotary brush mounted on the free end of the arm member, a motor supported on the arm member for rotating the brush and a latch for securing the arm member against the underside of the handle. The arm member is angularly displaceable between an upper, retracted inoperative position and a lower, extended operative position, relative to the handle of the machine. An example of such an attachment is illustrated and described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,373,652.
The attachment of rotary brush assemblies to the bucket pivot pin of excavation machines has several disadvantages. By connecting the sweeper attachment to the bucket pivot pin, the design of the connections of the bucket and the sweeper attachment to the machine handle becomes more complex, different pin sixes and configurations may be required and different types of connections are required to accommodate different bucket attachments of different machines. Furthermore, in the use of the type of attachment as described, the handle of the machine usually is set at an angle to the boom thereof to position the free end of the handle at a selected distance from the ground, the bucket mounted on the end of the handle is pivoted to a retracted position, a cylinder assembly operating the latch mechanism of the sweeper attachment is operated to release the brush so that it may swing down and have its bristles engage the ground or other surface to be swept, and then the machine is advanced along the desired sweeping path while the brush is rotated to sweep along the path of the brush. When it is desired to displace the arm member to the upper, retracted position, the bucket is pivoted to engage and pivot the arm member to the retracted position where it is engaged by latch mechanism. Such maneuvering can be cumbersome.
It thus has been found to be desirable to provide a sweeper attachment of the type described which will obviate the aforementioned problems in mounting the attachment to the handle of the machine and displacing the sweeper attachment between the in operative and operative position.